Pinkleys crime
What was Pinkley in prison for?
shareHe was gay! That got him 30 years in military prison.
https://dirty-dozen.fandom.com/wiki/Vernon_L._Pinkley
No, really.
I don’t know if I like the way this is worded.
“His crime of arrest was being Homosexual to people and was arrested for Thirty years' imprisonment for this crime consisting maybe of sexual harassment against people”
That doesn’t sound too legit. 😀
Well, it doesn't sound like the writer was a native English-speaker.
But yeah, that happened in those days, if an army private got caught with some consenting or eager adult guy, it'd mean a long prison term, longer than a civilian would get if I'm not mistaken. But now that you bring it up, after I hadn't seen the film for a couple of decades, I just realized that the gay military prisoner was shown to be a decent guy who caused no trouble for anyone, and unit's dangerous perv was straight. By Hollywood standards of the time, that was hugely progressive!
That’s a rough time and place to be gay, for sure. I’ve never thought of the character being portrayed that way, but you may be in to something.
shareYeah, I think there was just the one line about it, in the scene where Lee Marvin lists all the crimes that landed the dozen in jail. Pinkley never even looks at a guy through the whole film, even though he's a slow learner it seems he's learned that doing what comes naturally is a bad idea in the army.
I like the fact that the film showed a mix of prisoners, some of whose crimes were considered sympathetic or non-criminal by the time the movie was made. 1940s military justice was harsh, but not as harsh as it had been during WWI, where soldiers in war zones could be shot on the spot for minor infractions or having psychiatric issues.